Impairment of Empathy in adolescents with conduct problems: Is it due to the deficit in affective empathy or cognitive empathy

문은옥; Ghim， Hei-rhee; 천영운; 김태화; CHOI HYEON OK

THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

2014, 27(3), pp.127-146
Publisher : The Korean Society For Developmental Psychology
Research Area : Psychological Science

문은옥 ¹ , Ghim， Hei-rhee ² , 천영운 ³ , 김태화 ⁴ , CHOI HYEON OK ⁵

¹ 충북대학교 심리학과
² 충북대학교
³ 충북대학교
⁴ 충북대학교 심리학과
⁵ 충북대학교

ABSTRACT

Many studies have reported lower empathic ability in children and adolescents with conduct problems, including aggression, than children with normal behavior patterns. However, as empathy has been defined differently among researchers, it is unclear which empathic ability is impaired in those with conduct problems. Therefore, this study examined whether adolescents with conduct problems showed impairment in affective or cognitive empathy. Affective empathy was measured using emotional contagion, a facial mimicry reaction that occurs in response to the facial expression of a target individual. Cognitive empathy was measured using an emotional reading task. Fourteen adolescents with conduct problems and 23 adolescents without such problems participated in this study. The two groups showed differences in facial mimicry but not in the emotional reading task. Adolescents with conduct problems showed a smaller magnitude of facial mimicry to dynamic happy and sad expressions. In particular, when viewing sad expressions, the zygomaticus muscle activity in those with conduct problems was relatively high; this is the muscle reaction that typically occurs when expressing happiness. These results suggest that adolescents with conduct problems have a normal ability to recognize other people’s feelings, but are impaired in affective empathy, i.e., the ability to feel other's emotions in a congruent way.
KEYWORDS

conduct problem , cognitive empathy , emotional empathy , facial mimicry , facial expression reading
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